It’s quite funny how much of our life we live based on standards we have acquired in a rather haphazard if not completely accidental fashion. We like what we like to some extent because we were made familiar with it at an age or time when we were impressionable. 

You notice this especially when you watch school children in groups. There are the “cool kids,” and whatever the cool kids do, many of the others try to copy. One exception is the group of nerds, as they are too focussed on their intellectual interests and couldn’t care less about certain kinds of music or fashion. However, compare this situation with something as elitist as high-brow entertainment, and you’ll notice that people similarly just follow some imaginary set of standards. But those people would be offended if you said that they are just like the not-so popular kids in middle school who, instead of trying to figure out what they might like, adopted what they perceived to be in fashion. 

Our unimaginative intellectuals are not much different than our middle school kids who either got their fashion dictated by the industry or the “cool kids.” They may say that they really like classical music, and that it is an “acquired taste.” Yet, not many bother to steer away from the mainstream. Of course they all like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and never seem to get tired of it. However, there is a lot more excellent classical music out there that’s worth listening to, instead of attending the 20th performance of one of those aforementioned works. 

I find it quite interesting that not many people bother to make up their own mind. It’s of course much more convenient to follow what some proclaimed authorities in The New York Review of Books tell you to read, or at least buy, or to watch in the cinema whatever Roger Ebert recently thought worthy of his time. But this goes on and on. Why do you watch the TV show or movies you watch, wear the kind of clothes you wear, or play the kind of video games you play? 

It’s probably not the case that you stepped back and evaluated your taste. Instead you somehow grew into it, and before you knew it, you possessed  certain interests and beliefs. Yet, you may never have questioned a single one of them. The danger, therefore, is that you then merely focus on what you know or what is similar to what you know. Honestly, do you think any of the authorities you follow is really objective about anything? They only use pretentious language and write in the third person to appear objective. 

The world isn’t as boring as your blinders may make it appear to be. It only appears so because you don’t dare to look left or right anymore. But just take a look around, and explore the world on your own. It can be as simple as going to the public library, picking a random book that for whatever reason appeal to you, and read a few pages. Maybe you’ll like it, even though the mainstream press has completely ignored it. But maybe you discover that you can’t quite tell whether you like something or not. Either way, it can lead to some exciting changes in your life.